Whenever we travel to a city we analyze all the transport possibilities to know which will be our best option and thus make the holidays much more comfortable. Renting a car is always one of the main options, but we must take into account what we want it for and if it is really worth it since there are many cities where it is better to use public transport.
If you are going to travel to New York and you are thinking of renting a car there, the first thing you have to do is organize yourself to know what places you are going to visit and what you really need the car for. If you are going to be in "the city", it is better to rule out renting a car because the traffic there is crazy and with the amount of metro and bus that there is it will be enough to cover all your needs.
If once there you want to travel to other cities and that is why you consider renting, it will depend on where you really want to go. For example, if you are going to Washington, Philadelphia or Boston, the train takes you directly and does not take long, so it is better to use it since the traffic in those cities is also crazy and you are more compensated by public transport. I do recommend it instead to go somewhere that is in the suburbs and that is easily accessible by road, in addition to not having to use the car there.
It can also be an option to rent it to go from the airport to the hotel or vice versa, although in those cases I would also recommend going by public transport since this way you can enjoy the views and not go crazy with a city that you do not know and that has hellish traffic. So, I think that when traveling to this city it is not advisable to rent a car, especially if you are only going to tourist sites since they are all perfectly covered with public transport.